System and method for dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network

ABSTRACT

A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment is described. The method includes generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items. The method further may further include displaying the news items in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers and dynamically limiting the number of news items displayed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application incorporates by reference U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 60/750,844 filed on Dec. 14, 2005 for“Systems and Methods for Social Mapping,” U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/753,810 filed on Dec. 23, 2005 for “Systems andMethods for Social Timeline,” U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/493,291 filed on Jul. 25, 2006 for “Systems and Methods forDynamically Generating a Privacy Summary,” U.S. patent application Ser.No. ______ filed on ______, Attorney Docket No. PA3867US “for Systemsand Methods for Generating Dynamic Relationship-Based ContentPersonalized for Members of a Web-Based Social Network,” U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. ______ filed on ______ Attorney Docket No. P3868USfor “Systems and Methods for Measuring User Affinity in a Social NetworkEnvironment,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ filed on______ Attorney Docket No. PA3885US for “Systems and Methods forProviding Dynamically Selected Media Content to a User of an ElectronicDevice in a Social Network Environment.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to dynamic news presentation ina social network, and more particularly to systems and methods fordynamically presenting a news feed about a particular person.

2. Description of Related Art

Conventionally, a user of a networking website connects with other usersby providing information about the user to a social network website foraccess by the other users. For example, a user may post contactinformation, background information, current job position, hobbies, andso forth. Other users may contact the user and/or review informationabout the user based on common interests or for any other reason.

Recently, social networking websites have developed systems fortailoring connections between various users. For example, users may begrouped based on geographical location, job type, and so forth. Socialnetworking offers users the opportunity for frequent, automaticnotification of changes in the information posted by other users. Inother words, rather than having to initiate calls or emails to learnnews of another user, a user of a social networking website maypassively receive alerts to new postings by other users.

There are existing mechanisms that allow a user to display informationabout other users. Some mechanisms may allow the user to selectparticular news items for immediate viewing. Typically, however, thesenews items are disparate and disorganized. In other words, the user mustspend time researching a news topic by searching for, identifying, andreading individual news items that are not presented in a coherent,consolidated manner. Often, many of the news are not relevant to theuser. Just as often, the user remains unaware of the existence of somenews items that were not captured in the user's research. What is neededis an automatically generated display that contains information relevantto a user about another user of a social network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment isdescribed. In some embodiments, the method includes generating newsitems regarding activities associated with a user of a social networkenvironment and attaching an informational link associated with at leastone of the activities, to at least one of the news items. The methodfurther includes limiting access to the news items to a predeterminedset of viewers and assigning an order to the news items. The methodfurther includes displaying the news items in the assigned order to atleast one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment for generating a news feedin a social network environment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary social network provider;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary mini-feed engine;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot of one or more news items displayedto the viewing user 101 a; and

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating anddisplaying a news feed in a social network environment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method for dynamically presenting a news feed aboutactivities of a user of a social network is provided. A user (theviewing user) of a social network may choose to view a news feed aboutanother user (the subject user) in the social network. A list of thesubject user's activities within the social network may be drawn fromvarious databases within the social network. The news feed isautomatically generated based on the list of activities. The list ofactivities may be filtered, for example, according to priority settingsof the viewing user and/or privacy setting of the subject user. The listof activities may be displayed as a list of news items presented in apreferred order (e.g., chronological, prioritized, alphabetical, and thelike). Various news items in the news feed may include items of mediacontent and/or links to media content illustrating the activities of thesubject user. The news items may also include links enabling the viewinguser to participate in the subject user's activities. The news feed maybe continuously updated by adding news items about new activities and/orremoving news items about previous activities. Accordingly, the viewinguser may be better able to follow the “track” of the subject user's“footprints” through the social network, based on the news feed, withoutrequiring the subject user to continuously post new activities.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment 100 for generating a newsfeed in a social network environment. One or more users, such as users101 at user devices 102, are coupled to a social network provider 106via a network 104. The social network provider 106 may comprise any useror entity that provides social networking services, communicationservices, dating services, company intranets, and so forth. For example,the social network provider 106 may host a website that allows one ormore users 101, at one or more user devices 102, to communicate with oneanother via the website. The social networking website offers a firstuser 101 an opportunity to connect or reconnect with the one or moreother users 101 that attended, for example, the same university as thefirst user 101. In some embodiments a social network environment mayinclude a segmented community. A segmented community according to oneembodiment is a separate, exclusive or semi-exclusive web-based socialnetwork wherein each authenticated segmented community member accessesand interacts with other members of their respective segmentedcommunity.

In one instance, a viewing user 101 a associated with a user device 102requests a news feed (i.e., mini-feed) about a subject user 101 bassociated with a second user device 102 via a social networking websiteassociated with the social network provider 106. Any user 101 in thesocial network may request a mini-feed and become the viewing user 101 aor become the subject user 101 b as the subject of a mini-feed request.In some embodiments, the viewing user 101 a and the subject user 101 bmay be the same user, for example, for purposes of reviewing a personalmini-feed.

A mini-feed engine 110 is coupled to the social network provider 106.The mini-feed engine 110 utilizes data about a particular user (e.g.,the subject user 101 b), to assemble a list of one or more items ofmedia content or any other content for display to a user such as theviewing user 101 a. Examples of a subject user 101 b may include a user,an association of users (e.g., a family), a group of users, anorganization of users (e.g., a volleyball team), members of an event(e.g., a concert), students in a class (e.g., “Elementary PoliticalSpeaking and The Causes of Global Warming”), members of a club (e.g.,Fans of Global Warming), and the like. According to some embodiments,the viewing user 101 a may be coupled directly via the user device 102to the mini-feed engine 110. According to other embodiments, themini-feed engine 110 comprises a module associated with the socialnetwork provider 106.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an exemplary social networkprovider, such as the social network provider 106 shown in FIG. 1, isshown. A profile database 202 is provided for storing data associatedwith each of the users, such as the user 101 associated with user device102. When a user 101 subscribes to services provided by the socialnetwork provider 106, a user profile may be generated for user 101. Forexample, the user 101 may select privacy settings, provide contactinformation, provide personal statistics, specify memberships in variousorganizations, indicate interests, list affiliations, post classschedules, detail work activities, or group other users 101 according toone or more categories. When the user 101 adds additional information tothe user profile, such as adding additional contacts, the user profilein the profile database 202 may be updated with the information added.The user profile may be stored, modified, added, and so forth to anystorage medium. A timestamp may be associated with the user profile.Examples of timestamp include order of occurrence in a data base, date,time of day, and the like.

According to some embodiments, the user profile is created outside ofthe social network environment and provided to or accessed by the socialnetwork provider 106. Alternatively, the profile database 202 may belocated remotely and accessed by the social network provider 106.

The social network provider 106 includes a communications interface 204for communicating with users 101, such as via the user device 102described herein, over the network 104. The user device 102 communicatesvarious types of information, such as privacy settings selections,groupings of other users 101, and so forth, to the social networkprovider 106 via the communications interface 204. Any type ofcommunications interface 204 is within the scope of various embodiments.

A monitoring module 206 tracks one or more user activities on the socialnetworking website. For example, the monitoring module 206 can trackuser interaction with one or more items of media content, such as newsstories, other users' profiles, email to other users 101, chat roomsprovided via the social network provider 106, and so forth. Any type ofuser activity can be tracked or monitored via the monitoring module 206.The information, people, groups, stories, and so forth, with which theuser 101 interacts, may be represented by one or more objects, accordingto exemplary embodiments. The monitoring module 206 may determine anaffinity of the user 101 for subjects, other users 101, relationships,events, organizations, and the like according to users' 101 activities.

A display engine/GUI 208 may also be provided by the social networkprovider 106. The display engine/GUI 208 displays the one or more itemsof media content, profile information, and so forth to users 101. Users101 can interact with the social network provider 106 via the displayengine/GUI 208. For example, users 101 can select privacy settings,access their own user profile, access other users' 101 informationavailable via the social network provider, and so forth, via the displayengine/GUI 208. The mini-feed may be displayed in a field in the displayengine/GUI 208.

A relationship database 210 is provided for storing relationship dataabout each user 101. In various embodiments, the viewing user 101 a canspecify relationships with one or more subject users 101 b of the socialnetwork via the user profile, or by any other means. The viewing user101 a can assign categories, groups, networks, and so forth to the oneor more subject users 101 b with which the viewing user 101 a has arelationship. The relationship, for example, may specify that thesubject user 101 b is a family member, a schoolmate, an ex-girlfriend,an esteemed rival, and so forth. Any type of relationship may bespecified.

An activity database 210 is provided for storing activity data abouteach user 101. The activities may be tracked by the monitoring module206. Activities monitored by the monitoring module 206 may be stored inthe activity database 212. Activity entries in the activity database 210may include a timestamp indicating time and date of the activity, thetype of activity, the user 101 initiating the activity, any other users101 who are objects of the activity, and the like. Activities may bestored in multiple databases, including the activity database, theprofile database, the relationship database, and the like.

According to some embodiments, the social network provider 106 maydetermine a relationship for the user. For example, if user 101establishes communications with another user 101 interested in flyingprivate aircraft, the social network provider 106 may assign therelationship of fellow pilot. The social network provider 106 mayinquire whether or not user 101 wants to add the other user 101 as afellow pilot, in one instance. The social network provider 106 mayutilize a common interest in flying as a variable to measure the useraffinity, for flying and/or the fellow pilot without inquiring whetheruser 101 wants to add the other user 101 to their user's profile,according to some embodiments.

A relationship may be assigned based on a user's interaction with otherusers or with any type of content. The user 101 may have more than onerelationship with other users 101 or with content, according toexemplary embodiments. For example, user's 101 brother qualifies as onetype of relationship, while the fact that user's 101 brother attendedthe same university as user 101 may qualify as another relationship. Anynumber of relationships may be established for each user 101 and/or foreach activity performed by the user 101 in the social networkenvironment. A timestamp or other chronological indicia may beassociated with entries in the relationship database 210.

According to exemplary embodiments, one or more networks may be providedfor each user 101. For example, user 101 may have a network comprised ofpeople grouped according to a university attended, a network comprisedof people grouped according to the user's geographical location ofresidence, a network comprised of people grouped according to a commonfield of work, a network comprised of people grouped according to aparticular business, and so forth. As discussed herein, a common networkmay establish a relationship between user 101 and other users 101 in thecommon network, for example.

Any type of network may be provided by the social network provider 106.In other words, a network may comprise people grouped according to anytype of category, such as various social networks described herein, like“friends”, “geographical location”, and so forth. User 101 may specifythe networks, the categories, subcategories, and so forth and/or thenetworks, the categories, the subcategories, and so on may bepredetermined by the social network provider 106. The networks,categories, the subcategories, and so forth may comprise a relationshipwith the user 101, as discussed herein, but do not necessarily comprisethe only relationship user 101 has with the other users 101.

Although the social network provider 106 is described as being comprisedof various components (the profile database 202, the communicationsinterface 204, the monitoring module 206, the display engine/GUI 208,and the relationship database 210), fewer or more components maycomprise the social network provider 106 and still fall within the scopeof various embodiments.

The mini-feed engine 110 is configured to receive data about aparticular user of a social network, e.g., the subject user 101 b, andassemble a list of one or more activities to be displayed as news itemsabout of the subject user 101 b. The news items may be in the form ofitems of media content or any other content for display to the viewinguser 101 a. The mini-feed engine 110 may filter the activities accordingto privacy settings of the subject user 101 b and/or priority settingsof the viewing use. The mini-feed engine 110 may compile a dynamic listof a limited number of news items about the subject user 101 b fordisplay in a preferred order. The mini-feed engine 110 may provide theviewing user 101 a with links related to various activities in the newsitems, and other links providing opportunities to participate in theactivities.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the mini-feedengine 110. The mini-feed engine 110 includes an activity analyzer 302,a privacy component 304, and a dynamic list component 306, fordetermining the activities regarding the subject user 101 b that may bedisplayed as news items. The mini-feed engine 110 further includes adisplay order component 308, an informational component 310, an activelink component 312 and a media generator 314, for displaying the newsitems to the viewing user 101 a.

The activity analyzer 302 accesses the one or more user activitiesdetected by the monitoring module 206 and analyzes the one or more useractivities to compile a mini-feed activity list of activities associatedwith the subject user 101 b. Optionally, the activity analyzer 302 mayaccess the one or more activities from the various data bases (e.g., theprofile database 202, the relationship database 210, the activitydatabase 212, and the like). The activities may include activitiesperformed by the subject user 101 b, e.g., add an affiliation to agroup, terminate an affiliation with a group, add information to theprofile, remove information from the profile, RSVP to an event, withdrawthe RSVP, activate a mobile connection, add a note to the notes file,add a photo to own photo album, approve a relationship request, createan event, create a group, create a photo album, manually add a link, andthe like. The activities may include activities performed by other users101 relating to the subject user 101 b (e.g., the subject user 101 b isapproved by another for a relationship, the subject user 101 b ismentioned by another user 101 in their notes, the subject user 101 breceives a promotion, the subject user 101 b is tagged by another user101 in their photo album, and the like). The activities may includeactivities outside the social network, e.g., access an article from WallStreet Journal, book a vacation trip, and the like. Optionally, thesubject user's 101 b activities may be stored in a user activity storagemedium (not shown) associated with the mini-feed engine 110 and/or thesocial network provider 106.

The privacy component 304 is configured to analyze the privacy settingsof the subject user 101 b and filter out activities belonging tocategories that the subject user 101 b has elected to not display in themini-feed. For example, activities involving the subject user and theviewing user's wife may be designated as private by the subject user's101 b privacy settings and omitted from the mini-feed activity listdisplayed to the viewing user 101 a. The privacy settings may bevariable and prevent one particular user 101 from viewing activitiesregarding the subject user 101 b that another particular user 101 mightbe permitted to see. For example, the subject user 101 b might permither sister to see activities regarding the subject user 101 b and theviewing user's wife. The privacy component 304 may include defaultprivacy settings. The default privacy settings may be determined by thesocial network provider 106. For further information regarding privacysee application entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DYNAMICALLY GENERATINGA PRIVACY SUMMARY” filed on Jul. 25, 2006.

The dynamic list component 306 is configured to limit the number of newsitems displayed. In some embodiments the dynamic list component 306selects current activities, e.g., the most recent twenty activitiesaccording to the timestamp, for display as news items. In variousembodiments, the dynamic list component 306 selects activities accordingto viewing user priorities (e.g., viewing user affinity), viewing userpreferences (e.g., viewing user profile settings), subject userpriorities (e.g., subject user affinity), subject user preferences(e.g., subject user profile settings), filters, and the like. Forexample, the viewing user 101 a may set a filter for the dynamic listcomponent 308 to show only relationship activities of the subject user101 b in the news items display. In another example, the dynamic listcomponent 306 may display only the ten highest weighted activities ofthe subject user 101 b, according to the affinity calculations for theviewing user 101 a. For further information regarding affinitycalculations see application entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MEASURINGUSER AFFINITY IN A SOCIAL NETWORK ENVIRONMENT.” Optionally, the dynamiclist may include a predetermined number of entries, e.g., 40 entries,and the news items may be selected according to the most recent 40activities.

In some embodiments, the dynamic list component 306 may maintain a newsfeed for each user comprising a list of a predetermined number of newsitems (e.g., 40 entries) about the user. The dynamic list component 306may place the most recent news item at the top of the list and removethe oldest news item from the bottom of the list for each new activity.Optionally, the dynamic list component may associate a unique mini-feedprofile with each mini-feed for each user. The lowest priority news itemmay be removed according to the mini-feed profile, and a new news itemmay be added to a position on the list according to the relativepriority of the new news item, according to the mini-feed profile.

The display order component 308 is configured to determine an order forthe display of the news items. In some embodiments, the list of newsitems may-be sorted according to a timestamp associated with therespective activities. In other embodiments, the list of news items maybe sorted according to a viewing user priority (e.g., affinitydeterminations, viewing user preferences, and the like), a subject userpriority (e.g., affinity determinations, subject user profile, and thelike), alphabetical order of a field within the news item display, etc.In some embodiments, multiple field sorts may be applied to the newsitem display. For example, the viewing user 101 a may configure hispreferences to display relationship activities first followed by eventactivities second, etc., and to display the relationship activities (andthen the event activities) in a chronological order.

The informational link component 310 is configured to provide theviewing user 101 a one or more informational links to an activity of thesubject user 101 b. The informational links may provide the viewing user101 a additional information about the activity that is the subject ofthe news item. For example, an informational link may connect theviewing user 101 a to a web page about a group that the subject user 101b has joined. In various embodiments, an informational link may enablethe viewing user 101 a to view a photo added to the subject user's 101 bphoto album, to view information about a class the subject user 101 bhas enrolled in, and the like.

The active link component 312 is configured to provide the viewing user101 a one or more active links to an activity of the subject user 101 b.The active links may enable the viewing user 101 a to participate in theactivity that is the subject of the news item. For example, an activelink may enable the viewing user 101 a to join a group that the subjectuser 101 b has joined. In various embodiments, an active link may enablethe viewing user 101 a to download a photo added to the subject user's101 b photo album, to enroll in a class the subject user 101 b hasenrolled in, to join a club the subject user 101 b has joined, and soforth. In some embodiments, the active link and the informational linkmay enable the viewing user to perform the same function.

The media generator 314 is configured to format the activity listcompiled by the activity analyzer 302 and display one or more news itemsaccording to the privacy component 304, the dynamic list component 306,and the display order component 308. The media generator 314 is furtherconfigured to provide functionality to any links attached by theinformational link component 310 and/or the active link component 312.In some embodiments, the media generator component 310 provides thedisplay to the news items to the display engine/GUI 208 for display tothe viewing user 101 a. Alternatively, the media generator 314 displaysthe news items to the viewing user 101 a via the user device 102.

In some embodiments, the media generator 314 may be configured to attachadvertising to the mini-feed display. Examples of advertising include,but are not limited to, a depiction of a product, a depiction of a logo,a display of a trademark, an inducement to buy a product, an inducementto buy a service, an inducement to invest, an offer for sale, a productdescription, trade promotion, a survey, a political message, an opinion,a public service announcement, news, a religious message, educationalinformation, a coupon, entertainment, a file of data, an article, abook, a picture, travel information, and the like. The format of theadvertising may include, singularly or in combination, an audio oranimation or other multimedia element played at various times, banneradvertising, network links, e-mail, images, text messages, video clips,audio clips, programs, applets, cookies, scripts, and the like.

Although the mini-feed engine 110 is described as being comprised ofvarious components (e.g., the activity analyzer 302, the privacycomponent 304, the dynamic list component 306, the display ordercomponent 308, the informational link component 310, the active linkcomponent 312, and the media generator 314), fewer or more componentsmay comprise the mini-feed engine 110 and still fall within the scope ofvarious embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot 400 of one or more news items 402displayed to the viewing user 101 a. The exemplary screen shot 400represents a display page showing six news items 402 regarding a subjectuser named “Sarah.” However, more or fewer than six news items 402 maybe displayed. The total number displayed may be limited by the dynamiclist component 306. Various stories, content, media, and so forth may bedisplayed in the news items 402 via the display page. In the exemplaryscreen shot shown in FIG. 4, news items in the form of stories and/orstory headlines are displayed.

The news items 402 include activities. An exemplary activity 404indicates that “Joy Lee added one photo of Sarah.” The activities may bedescribed by text. In some embodiments, an informational link 406 may beattached to one or more of the news items 402. The informational linksmay provide additional information about the activity 404. The exemplaryinformational link 40 may, for example, enable the viewing user 101 a toview Joy Lee's photo album, named “photogo.” In various embodiments, theinformational links may enable the viewing user 101 a to link to anotherweb page, view a photo, obtain information about an organization, linkto a user profile, view information about an event, view a user's notes,and so forth. In some embodiments, the informational link may include adropdown menu with multiple selections. A news item may include multipleinformational links or one informational link.

In some embodiments, an active link 408 may be attached to one or moreof the news items 402. The active links enable the viewing user 101 a toparticipate in the same activity or a similar related activity as thesubject user 101 b, or take a related action. For example, the exemplaryinformational link 408 includes two links, i.e., “grab” and “share”.“Grab” may enable the viewing user 101 a to download a photo from JoyLee's photo album. “Share” may enable the viewing user 101 a to forwardthe photo from Joy Lee's photo album to someone else. In variousembodiments, an active link enables the viewing user 101 a to add anaffiliation, participate in an event, create their own event, download anote, join a group, add a link, add a relationship tag another user'sphoto album and so forth. In some embodiments, the active link mayinclude a dropdown menu with multiple selections. In some embodimentsthe active link and informational link may include the same link. A newsitem may include multiple active links or one active link.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a flow diagram of an exemplary process forgenerating and displaying a news feed about activities of a user of asocial network is provided. At step 502, news items relating toactivities performed by a subject user 101 b associated with a socialnetwork environment are generated. For example, the activity analyzer302 may collect a list of one or more activities associated with thesubject user 101 b from monitoring module 206 and optionally from thevarious databases in the social network (e.g., the profile database 202,the relationship database 210, the activity database 212, and the like).The list of activities may include emails, viewing of user profiles,viewing of users' photos, receiving a promotion, sending messages toother users, and so forth, as discussed herein. The list of activitiesmay be filtered according to preferences set by the viewing user and/orthe subject user.

At step 504, informational links may be attached to one or more newsitems generated in the step 502. For example, the informational linkcomponent 310 may determine relevant links relating to activities toattach to one or more of the news items. As another example, the subjectuser 101 b may begin to cohabitate with her girlfriend and thus therelationship database 210 may provide a news item regarding theestablishment of the cohabitation relationship. A link to the subjectuser's 101 b girlfriend may be attached by the informational linkcomponent 310 to the news item at the step 504, enabling the viewinguser 101 a to view entries regarding the girlfriend. In someembodiments, the informational link may be a dropdown menu including,for example, the girlfriend's email address, a link to her publicprofile, and a mini-feed about the girl friend.

At step 506, an active link may be attached to one or more news itemsgenerated in the step 502. For example, the active link component 312may attach an active link to the news item regarding the establishingthe cohabitation relationship (discussed elsewhere) enabling the viewinguser 101 a to email congratulations to the girlfriend. In someembodiments, the active link may be a dropdown menu providing aselection from a list of actions including, for example, a download linkto the girlfriend's photo, an invitation to join the circle of thegirlfriend's mutual friends, and a link to join her next Bodacious BeerBust Binge.

At step 508, the number of users who may view the mini-feed may belimited. For example, the privacy component 304 may limit display of themini-feed to only users of the social network. In various embodiments,the privacy component 304 may limit display of selected news itemsaccording to a privacy profile stored in the profile database 202 forthe subject user 101 b. Alternatively, the privacy component 304 maylimit the mini-feed display to selected users according to the privacyprofile stored in the profile database 202 for the subject user 101 b.In some embodiments, the privacy component may filter the activitiesavailable for display according to a privacy profile. The privacycomponent 304 may limit display of the mini-feed according to defaultprivacy settings. Other components and/or modules may also limit thedisplay.

At a step 510, an order is assigned to the news items. For example, thedisplay order component 308 may sort the news items according tochronological order at step 510. In various embodiments, the displayorder component 308 may assign the order of the news items according toa viewing user priority (e.g., affinity determinations, viewing userpreferences, and the like), a subject user priority (e.g., affinitydeterminations, subject user profile, and the like), alphabetical orderof various fields within the news item display, etc. In someembodiments, the display order component 308 may apply multiple fieldsorts to the news item display. For example, the viewing user 101 a mayconfigure his preferences to display relationship activities firstfollowed by event activities second, etc., and to display therelationship activities in a chronological order followed by the eventactivities in chronological order.

At step 512, the news items are displayed to the viewing user 101 a. Forexample, the media generator 314 may format the activity list compiledin step 502 and display one or more news items according to limitsimposed on the scope of the viewers at step 508, and the display orderassigned at step 510. Displaying the news items at step 512 furtherincludes displaying links attached to the news item at step 504 and/or506, and linking the viewing user 101 a to those links selected by theviewing user 101 a. For example, links attached by the informationallink component 310 and/or the active link component 312 may also bedisplayed at step 312 by the media generator. In some embodiments,advertising may be displayed at step 512. In various embodiments, theactive links and/or passive links may include links to advertising.Optionally, the news items may be displayed by the display engine/GUI208.

Although the process for generating and displaying a news feed isdescribed as being comprised of various steps (e.g., generating newsitems 502, attaching informational links 504, attaching active links506, limiting the number of viewers 508, assigning an order 510,displaying news items 512), fewer or more steps may comprise the processand still fall within the scope of various embodiments.

Several embodiments are specifically illustrated and/or describedherein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications andvariations are covered by the above teachings and within the scope ofthe appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scopethereof. For example, affinity values may be modified by acts ofselecting links for access in the mini-feed display. The news items inthe mini-feed may be searched for a predetermined character string(e.g., a particular name or subject). A filter may be applied to thenews items to remove predetermined content, for example, content aboutsubjects in which the viewing user is not interested. The order of thenews items in the mini-feed display may be determined by affinityinformation regarding the viewing user 101 a. Any of the elementsassociated with the mini-feed engine may employ any of the desiredfunctionality set forth hereinabove. Items selected for deletion fromthe mini-feed display list may be determined according to first in firstout. Items selected for deletion from the mini-feed display list may bedetermined according to affinity information. Method steps describedherein may be performed in alternative orders. Various embodiments ofthe invention include logic stored on computer readable media, the logicconfigured to perform methods of the invention. The examples providedherein are exemplary and are not meant to be exclusive.

The embodiments discussed herein are illustrative of the presentinvention. As these embodiments of the present invention are describedwith reference to illustrations, various modifications or adaptations ofthe methods and or specific structures described may become apparent tothose skilled in the art. All such modifications, adaptations, orvariations that rely upon the teachings of the present invention, andthrough which these teachings have advanced the art, are considered tobe within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Hence, thesedescriptions and drawings should not be considered in a limiting sense,as it is understood that the present invention is in no way limited toonly the embodiments illustrated.

1. A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment,the method comprising: generating a plurality of news items regarding aplurality of activities associated with a user of a social networkenvironment; attaching an informational link associated with at leastone of the plurality of activities, to at least one of the plurality ofnews items; limiting access to the plurality of news items to apredetermined set of viewers; assigning an order to the plurality ofnews items; and displaying the plurality of news items in the assignedorder to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of activities areselected according to an affinity determined for the viewing user. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein at least one informational link comprisesa dropdown menu.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising attachingan active link associated with at least one of the plurality ofactivities, to at least one of the plurality of news items.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the active link comprises a dropdown menu. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assigning an order comprisesassigning the order according to a chronological order of occurrence ofthe news items.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising displayingadvertising with the plurality of news items.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising: monitoring an interaction of the viewing user withthe at least one of the plurality of news items; and utilizing theinteraction to generate an additional news item.
 9. The method of claim1, further comprising: monitoring an interaction of the viewing userwith the at least one of the plurality of news items; and utilizing theinteraction to select advertising for display to the viewing user. 10.The method of claim 1, further comprising searching the one or more newsitems for a predetermined character string.
 11. The method of claim 1,further comprising applying a filter to the one or more news items toprevent news items regarding certain types of activities from beingdisplayed.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamicallylimiting a number of the plurality of news items available for display.13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of dynamically limiting thenumber of the plurality of news items for display includes removing anews item from the display and adding a new news item to the display.14. The method of claim 13, wherein the news item removed from thedisplay is selected according to the assigned order.
 15. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the news item removed from the display is selectedaccording to affinity information.
 16. A system for displaying a newsfeed comprising: a social network environment; a module configured togenerate a plurality of news items regarding a plurality of activitiesassociated with a user of the social network environment; aninformational link component configured to attach an informational linkassociated with at least one of the plurality of activities, to at leastone of the plurality of news items; a privacy component configured tolimit access to the plurality of news items to a predetermined set ofviewers; a display order component configured to assign an order to theplurality of news items generated; and a media generator configured todisplay the plurality of news items in the assigned order to at leastone viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers.
 17. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the social network environment is a segmentedcommunity.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein at least oneinformational link comprises a dropdown menu.
 19. The system of claim16, further comprising an active link component configured to attach anactive link associated with at least one of the plurality of activitiesto at least one of the plurality of news items.
 20. The system of claim16, wherein the display order component is configured to assign theorder to the plurality of news items generated according to an order ofoccurrence of the plurality of news items.
 21. The system of claim 16,wherein the privacy component is configured to limit the access to usersof the network environment.
 22. The system of claim 16, wherein theprivacy component is configured to limit the access according to privacysettings determined by the user of the social network environment. 23.The system of claim 16, further comprising a dynamic list componentconfigured to remove a predetermined news item from the plurality ofnews items and add a new news item to the plurality of news items.
 24. Acomputer readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the programbeing executable by a processor for performing a method for displaying anews feed, the method comprising: generating the plurality of news itemsregarding a plurality of activities associated with the user of thesocial network environment; attaching an informational link associatedwith at least one of the plurality of activities, to at least one of theplurality of news items; limiting access to the plurality of news itemsto a predetermined set of viewers; assigning an order to the pluralityof news items generated; and displaying the plurality of news items inthe assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined setof viewers.
 25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising attachingan active link associated with at least one of the plurality ofactivities to at least one of the plurality of news items.
 26. Theapparatus of claim 24, further comprising dynamically limiting a numberof the items of media content available for display.